Accused child killer ‘on Easy Street'

Wednesday

Jan 30, 2013 at 10:10 PMJan 31, 2013 at 11:06 AM

After being arrested on charges of decapitating his son in 2011, a Thibodaux man told a mental hospital guard he was not worried about his trial “because I have a good family and a good lawyer. I’m on Easy Street,” according to documents read in court Wednesday.

Katie UrbaszewskiStaff Writer

After being arrested on charges of decapitating his son in 2011, a Thibodaux man told a mental hospital guard he was not worried about his trial “because I have a good family and a good lawyer. I’m on Easy Street,” according to documents read in court Wednesday.Such a statement does not automatically mean Jeremiah Wright, 31, is fit to stand trial nor that he's mentally stable, witnesses for the defense said Wednesday during the second day of a hearing to address those issues.A Lafourche Parish judge decided to send Wright to a state mental hospital in Jackson in October 2011 to try to make Wright competent after doctors said he wasn’t able to assist in his defense. The next month, the guard made note of Wright’s statement about not being worried.After making that statement, Wright began acting irrationally when he went back to the psychiatric ward, according to documents.Evidence could suggest that the “guard’s statements are what triggered the changing of (Wright’s) diagnosis” from incompetent in 2011 to competent nine months later, Wright’s attorney Cecilia Bonin told Judge John LeBlanc Wednesday in the Thibodaux courtroom.“The root of this problem begins 11 days after his arrival, ... when the guard says something, and they latch onto it,” Bonin said.The defense’s witnesses have testified that Wright, at least at the times they examined him, did not appear able mentally to assist in his defense for a trial.Wright is accused killing his 7-year-old son, Jori Lirette on Aug. 14, 2011. Lirette, who had cerebral palsy, was bound to a wheelchair, fed through a tube and required around-the-clock care.Though the doctors who were in charge of Wright’s care last year declared him fit to stand trial and sent him back to the Lafourche Parish jail, it’s up to LeBlanc to decide whether that’s true.The hearing is scheduled to end Friday. If LeBlanc declares him competent, prosecutors can continue with their first-degree murder charge against Wright, with the death penalty as the possible sentence. If the judge declares him incompetent, Wright will be sent back to the hospital, and doctors will try to treat him until his competency is assessed again.Prosecutors called Dr. John Thompson, chief of staff at Wright’s former hospital, to the stand Wednesday. He said guards at the Jackson facility are considered “therapeutic” correctional guards because they’re trained to interact with mentally ill patients and are also considered “psych techs.”Thompson said his hospital is able to restore about 70 percent of its patients to competency, which is the same as the national average.The average amount of time patients spend at the hospital is between 70 and 110 days, Thompson said. Wright spent nine months there.One of Wright’s doctors “tends to be a guy who’s careful in his process and wants to make sure he does it right. ... I think that’s probably why it took a long time,” Thompson said.Lafourche District Attorney Cam Morvant II asked one of the defense’s witnesses, forensic psychologist Richard Rogers, if Rogers would want to know if a patient he was observing in a controlled environment “acted completely differently outside that controlled environment.”Rogers responded “yes.”Wright has been present during this week’s hearing. In a bullet-proof vest and handcuffs, he displayed little expression while watching testimony.One of the defense’s witnesses, Dr. Joseph Sesta, a neuropsychologist, made note of Wright’s “flat” demeanor in court. Wright behaved similarly when he examined him and was “as interested in my exam as he seems to be in these courtroom proceedings, from what I can see,” Sesta said.As he cross-examined the defense’s witnesses, Morvant asked them if it was logical Wright would perform poorly during psychiatric tests and interviews because the better he did, the more likely he would face a death-penalty charge in the future. They were reluctant to give a clear answer.Rogers testified that in his study of seven forensic centers, 5 percent of patients were definitely making up or exaggerating their illnesses to avoid consequences and 20 percent were possibly doing so.The hearing is moving slowly, with expert witnesses on the stand for hours as they describe technical psychological tests and data. More than a dozen witnesses could testify, but after two days, the prosecution and defense have only questioned five people. “We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to move this to reach a conclusion,” LeBlanc told the attorneys Wednesday.

Staff Writer Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at 448-7617 or katie.urbaszewski@dailycomet.com.